Number 5 Hunt!

On a walk around the grounds, the children set off to look for the number of the week, number 5. Otto found the first number 5 on a speed limit sign, just at the top of the hill. Very excitedly he called out, “Look, there’s a number 5!”. Isabelle correctly pointed out, “That is so the cars need to go number 5 and slow”. When getting over the hill, Amelie found the next number 5, “There’s another car number 5 sign”. This time she used her finger to carefully trace over the number 5. Once the children got to the ducks, Basti stopped and used his eyes to count then tapped Joseph, “There’s 5 ducks” which then prompted his friends to count, “1, 2, 3, 4, 5”. On the way back to nursery, the children all collected 5 leaves to bring back to nursery for the nature tray. 

Over the last couple of weeks, the pre school children have been practising their fine motor skills in various ways. One of the activities the children really enjoyed was to cut along several shapes, numbers and letters. The letter of the week was ‘E’ and the children really challenged themselves to cut along each line of the letter. Whilst Esme was carefully cutting along the line, she announced to her fiends, “Do you know that E is for me, Esme?” With a proud smile on her face. Margot then wrote her whole name and drew a picture of her family before getting going to cut all of the letters and pictures out. After the children had successfully practised their cutting, they used various drawing and writing tools to decorate their pictures to take home. 

A group of pre school children chose to physically challenge themselves to build various sized towers and transport models with the Lego and duplo blocks. Freddie selected each piece he needed, reassuring Joshua, “It’s ok, I need just a few short pieces and then some longer pieces to connect it all together”. River and Jasper worked together to make a car transporter and listened to each others suggestions, River praising Jasper, “That’s a good idea”. Once the children had finished their models, they were comparing shapes and sizes. Cooper correctly noticed that the car transporter was smaller than the lorry whilst Freddie pointed out, “But the car transporter is taller”

Horses Leaves & Torches!

Whilst out on a walk around the grounds the toddlers were on the bridge saying hello to the ducks when they heard a familiar sound in the distance… it was the sound of a horse hooves on the path. They all turned their heads with Sebastian shouting, “Noise!?” And pointing with one hand while holding his other hand to his ear. Phoebe started making the clip clop sound of the horses feet with her mouth while other voices neighed. As they all moved closer the children were so excited to see a police man on one of the police horses who was kind enough to stop for a few minutes and say hello. Marlow shouted excitedly “A horse, a horse”. When it was time for the horse to go the children all waved and shouted “bye bye”.

One morning a group of toddlers approached the home corner with a cosy scene set up with the dolls. Halle immediately went over and after picking up one of the dolls she placed it onto the blanket and rubbed its back, as if she was trying to put it down for a nap. Meanwhile, Charlotte started to put a dress on her doll, giving its head a rub and then bringing it in for a cuddle once the doll was fully clothed.  Sienna started to feed her doll some bread, making a “Num num num” sound as she held the food to the dolls mouth. Once she had finished feeding her doll Sienna attempted to put some trousers on it when she paused and rubbed her hand over its tummy ‘He got belly butto’ which made her giggle and give it a little poke. 

One afternoon some of the children were drawn to the magnifying glasses and torches set up in the garden for them to explore with. Eliza and Phoebe both approached and picked up magnifying glasses, pressing them to their faces when Cara came along and picked up a torch, pointing it in their direction. Eliza then picked up a torch in her other hand and pointed it at a leaf. “Wow..leaf” leaning in as close as she could to get a good look. Phoebe watched as she did this and also picked up a leaf, instead holding it to the front of the torch, making a shocked face as the leaf glowed from the light. Marlow and Leo approached after hearing all of the gasps and ‘wows’ and straight away picked up their own torches. Leo pointed the beam of his torch up to the sky and carefully balanced a leaf on top, similarly showing a look of amazement. As he took in a deep breath and let out a whispered “Wow” his breath moved the leaf a little, causing it to wobble and Leo to say “ahh, oh no” as he extended his arm trying to maintain balance. Marlow saw this and began laughing, stating “leaf fall off” as he copied Leo’s actions with his own torch, cackling each time he was able to blow the leaf off the top. 

Over the last couple of weeks  the under 2’s have been exploring a sensory adventure with all kinds of textures and materials! 

Inside they have had the opportunity to explore chia seeds soaked in water which produces a thick, slime like material. Leo stuck his hands straight into the chia seeds and looked up with a big smile, letting them trickle through his fingers as he picked up a handful and let them fall through. When Madeleine saw him doing so, she quickly ran over and let out a ‘Wow!’ as she joined in. Another activity the children really enjoyed was playing with the oats in the sensory tray where they were given a range of tools to play with, including spoons, rakes, bowls and forks. Henry quickly got stuck in and picked up a spoon and toy ice cream cone, scooping up the oats and pouring them into the cone, making lots of ‘Oooww’ noises as he did so. Once he had filled up the cone, he tipped it upside down and watched as the oats fell out, clapping his hands in celebration. 

The children got to show off their artistic skills whilst mark making on cling film as they spread the blobs of paint over surface using a variety of tools such as rollers and brushes, and their hands. Skandar watched very closely as the paint was getting poured onto the table and very quickly got involved in the activity, slamming his hands straight down into the paint and making a huge ‘splat’ sound. Skandar looked around to see everyone with little spots of paint all over them and said “Oh.. Haha”. 

The under 2’s have loved exploring the grounds on our daily walks, particularly enjoying playing on the field with some balls and a parachute. Zachary loved playing with the parachute and let out a shout as he saw it getting pulled out, showing his excitement. He grabbed an edge of the parachute and began to flap it around, showing it proudly to his friends, and encouraging them to join in. Once a few more had got involved in waving the parachute around, they all sat down and gleefully watched as it got lifted up and thrown over them, all clapping and laughing happily. 

Planting Saplings!

Over the last couple of weeks, some of the preschool children have been helping to do some gardening, planting saplings of dog rose, hawthorn, hazel dogwood and crab apple at the front of the nursery which they will be able to observe growing into a hedge over the coming months and years. Izzy and Freddie were so eager to get going, Izzy proudly letting her friends know “You know I always help my mummy and daddy to do helpful things at home!”. One of the most exciting things for them was realising that they had a selection of their own child-sized gardening tools to help dig the holes. Amelie chose a fork to dig a small hole, stopping half way, before saying, “Tilly this is hard work isn’t it” with a smile. Tilly responded, “It’s ok, we can have a break soon and get some energy!”. Izzy started digging with a spade and Freddie challenged himself, “I think I need a grown-ups one because my hands are bigger now”, holding his hands up to show his friends. Once satisfied the holes were deep enough, Amelie asked, “What do we need to do now?” Confidently, Izzy explained, “Remember we need to bury the roots, down, down, underground”. 

After carefully selecting which sapling they each wanted to place in the ground, the children didn’t mind getting their hands muddy, digging down further to make sure the roots were fully covered. Once all the saplings were in the ground, Tilly went along the line counting from 1, all the way to 18 which soon caught the attention of the other children who then counted backward from 18 to 1, all of them clapping when they got to the end of the sapling line. Amelie stood next to the base of one of the saplings and told Freddie, “This is nearly at the top of my leg, and soon when we are bigger, it will be as tall as my shoulders!”. Out on a walk later that afternoon, Freddie was very proud to let some of the other children know that he had helped to plant the saplings, to which Otto replied, “Wow, that’s cool!”. 

Outside in the garden, the children had fun taking part in a letter hunt, searching for some smaller letters which were hidden in some foam. At first, Phoebe, Ollie, and Esmé used their hands to search for the letters until Arlo approached with a magnifying glass to look deeper. Once all the foam had disintegrated, Arlo, Arthur, and Isla were observing which letters they could find, Arthur very quickly called out excitedly, “Arthur” while pointing at the letter A.

Exploring with Light!

The toddlers have been absolutely loving the change in season we have been experiencing recently, especially with the clocks going back and the afternoons being darker. This has led to lots more light play which the toddlers have been fascinated with, showing a real interest in the torches. Marlow in particular has been asking for a torch each time he notices it getting slightly darker, asking “Can I have a torch?”, often followed by “This is my torch!” with the biggest grin while waving it around. Jenson used his torch to shine it on lots of different surfaces, moving it from a pumpkin, to the plant in the home corner and then to all of his friend’s tummies! This incited lots of giggles as Matilde, Phoebe and Leo all lined up for their turn, baring their stomachs. One particular afternoon, after the sun had set, Cora took her torch over to the patio door and pointed it outside and onto the ceiling of the pergola, gasping as she noticed the beam moving across the ceiling as she moved it. This then attracted more friends who approached the doors and all sat in a line so they could point their torches outside too. After a few minutes of moving their torches around and chatting about what they could see, along with some “Wow” ‘s at their discoveries, Finley said, “In the sky”, gesturing his torch further into the garden. After Finley’s suggestion the toddlers all relocated to the nature table so they could shine their torches into the sky, onto the bark, plants and trees all around. Sebastian pointed the torch to the sky and gasped, shouting out “Aeroplane!” as he moved his head all around, searching to find it. Cara then pointed her torch at Cora’s toy pig which had been brought to the table and the children began pointed their torches at the pigs features. 

When setting off for a walk around the Imber Court grounds, the toddlers had their waterproofs and wellies on with their torches in hand. Whilst searching for some leaves to bring back to nursery the children came across a mole hill and sat down to investigate. Leo pointed his torch directly at the mound of soil and leaned in close. The other children copied this with Eliza stating “Wow” as she used her finger to touch the soil. After this they came across a pile of wood and Phoebe straight away went over, leaned over the wood and shined her torch into the gap between some of the tree stumps… “Ahhh spider” and quickly retracted before going back for another look. 

Over the last couple of weeks in the under two’s room, the children have really enjoyed every activity available and in particular the sensory activities including the light sensory room, which included some light up balls, shakers, and some new light up crosses. The children loved investigating the new crosses, watching with awe as they glowed while being stacked up, reflecting the sand colours on their smiling faces. Skandar happily picked one up and carried it around to show his friends! 
They have also loved spreading paint across cling film using their hands. Maddie had the occasional peek over as the activity was being set up, eager to play with the paint and began moving closer as she grinned. This encouraged more children to come and see what was going on and as the paint was squeezed onto the table, Maddie and Emily looked at each other, covered their mouths and giggled. As soon as they were given the go ahead, Maddie, Jack and Emily put their hands straight in and got to work, spreading the paint all over. Jack said, “Ohhh! Ha ha!” as he lifted up his hands and clapped spraying paint all over himself and his friends. 

Outside in the garden, the children have been showing a particular interest in the mud kitchen, using it to create all sorts of fun. One morning, the under 2’s decided to make their own potions by using resources such as herbs, leaves and coloured water. Zachary was the first one to approach this activity and did not hold back. He sat straight down and gasped in excitement at what was surrounding him. Theo then joined in and picked up a sensory bottle and shook it towards the bowl, gesturing as if he was adding ingredients to the mix. He giggled as the bottle made a loud noise. The children added leaves, water, mud and more and gave it a good stir, creating their wonderful potion! 

Halloween & Phonics with Conkers!

Over the past couple of weeks, the preschool children have continued to enjoy participating in phonics sessions with Rebecca. Amelie and River particularly enjoyed matching the letters on the conkers to the letters on the paper. Amelie very quickly noticed the letter A, telling her friends, “That conker is A, A for Amelie” and then placed all of the letters on to the A part of paper. She then went on to recognising further letters from her name and attempted to sequence them in the correct order to spell out her name using the conkers. Margot challenged some of her friends, “Can you find the letter for your name?” She was praising with a little clap and well done when the children correctly found the first letter of their name. Some of the younger preschoolers are engaging with the phonics sessions too. Harry had seen some of his friends do some letter practice writing and eagerly asked, “Can I try that too?” And with great control, was able to form the letters to make out his name and was very proud of himself.

On the build up to Halloween, the children have been exploring various sensory and craft activities including pumpkin carving, making pumpkin pies in the mud kitchen and making their own spiders. Whilst some children painted some spiders, Joshua and Esmé concentrated very well to weave some pipe cleaners together with Esmé paying close attention to detail and made sure that she had counted 8 legs before she had finished her spider. Edward, Gabriel and Ellie couldn't wait to get their hands inside the pumpkin to pull the seeds out, Ellie laughing as her hands dug deeper, “Ewww, it feels weird!”. Edward got stuck in, filling up his bowl to make some pumpkin soup just like in the story that had been read at group time. The children have all been very excited about dressing up with a variety of characters coming in to nursery. There were witches, skeletons, Batman and a princess to name a few. The children couldn’t wait to show off their outfits to each other whilst Otto waited eagerly throughout the day, “Is it Halloween yet? It needs to be dark to be Halloween!”.